28l 



FUNGUS FLORA OF YORKSHIRE.* 



The completion of the fourth volume of the Botanical Series 

 issued by the Yorkshire Naturalists' Union is an event which 

 will be welcomed by botanists not only in our broad-acred shire, 

 but throughout the country. Yorkshire is to be congratu- 

 lated upon having its well-organised and successful Union of 

 Naturalists, in which the foremost naturalists work har- 

 moniously together, not only for the benefit of their own 

 county, but greatly to the advantage of natural science. Under 

 the auspices of the Union a volume of miscellaneous botanical 

 papers and addresses was published in 1891. In 1888 appeared 

 Lees' well-known ' Flora of West Yorkshire,' probably the most 

 complete flora ever issued for any district. Some years ago 

 Baker's ' North Yorkshire ' was revised and reprinted in parts 

 by the Union, and we understand that this is practically finished 

 and will be ready very shortly. These two floras, together with 

 Robinson's 'Flora of East Yorkshire,' recently issued by the 

 Hull Society, practically monograph the higher forms of vegeta- 

 tion in the county. 'The Alga Flora of Yorkshire,' by W. and 

 G. S. West (1901) deals with the lowest plants, leaving only the 

 lichens and the fungi to be dealt with. 



A systematic study of the fungi of the county was com- 

 menced some years ago on the formation of the Yorkshire 

 Mycological Committee. This Committee was exceedingly 

 fortunate in securing the services of Mr. Massee as chairman, 

 whose practical interest has been most helpful, and Mr. Cross- 

 land as secretary, whose untiring* energy and enthusiasm at 

 once infected the remainder of his Committee. At the ordinary 

 meetings of the Union, and particularly at the annual fungus 

 forays held in different parts of the county, the various members 

 of this Committee have worked conscientiously, and naturally 

 have accumulated much material relative to the subject. The 

 first instalment of the ' Fungus Flora,' as Part 28 of the Union's 

 'Transactions,' was published in November 1902. This, how- 

 ever, only contained 48 pages. It became obvious that, if 

 published in the ordinary way in the 'Transactions,' several 

 years must necessarily elapse before the completion of the work. 



-"-'The Fung-US-Flora of Yorkshire,' b}' G. Massee, F.L.S., F.R.H.S., 

 and C. Crossland, F.L.S., 400 pp., 8vo. A. Brown & Sons, Ltd., 5, Far- 

 ring-don Avenue, E.G. Cloth, los. 6d. net. 



1905 September i. 



